I guess I’ve been living under a rock, because the First Annual American Country Awards caught me by surprise. I assumed it was some online poll and that was it, but, no. It’s apparently a full-fledged network award show airing on Fox in December.

I’m actually on board for this. For all the talk about country music being about the fans, there hasn’t been a proper fan-voted award show since the TNN/Music City News thing ended. The CMT Awards is the closest thing, but its category structure prevents it from being a Fan’s Choice CMA or ACM Awards. I also find it funny that the five nominees for Artist of the Year are the exact same five that I thought deserved CMA Entertainer nominations this year.

I’m enamored with the idea of another prime-time showcase for country music during the holiday season. If it catches on, it will be good for the life cycle of country albums. With the ACM flirting with fan voting these past few years, this show might lend some insight into how much of an impact the fans are making on the ACM results.

But what I like the most are the separate categories for touring, which are positioned as major honors but not as big as the overall Artist of the Year. That’s what the Entertainer category is supposed to be, but with no “Live Act” category at the CMA or ACM awards, it doesn’t usually work out that way.

I’m less enthused with the obscene number of Single and Music Video categories. It’s to the point of silliness.

Anyway, here are the nominees. You can vote once a day through Nov. 8 in most races, and through Dec. 4 for Artist of the Year.

….I actually agree with the concept of this show…. But the fact that it is fan-voted obviously eliminates a lot of the competition if they are competing against Swift, Underwood, or Antebellum.

I will add that it is interesting that country music is the only genre that is represented in 7 different [major] award shows, and has 4 of those strictly dedicated to country music (CMT video awards, CMAs, ACMs, American Country Awards).

I really like this post and its points, though I have a different overall perspective on the show. I started something I was going to post today before I lost interest:

“As ratings-driven exercises in tedium go, I actually feel like the ACAs are going to be pretty accidentally entertaining. I’m curious to see which stars strain the hardest to pretend that they’re excited about attending and which ones don’t even bother.

I mean, we’ve gotten to the point where country stardom starts seem like an endless march of glitzy BS rather than anybody’s “dream.” Think how many self-congratulatory music industry award ceremonies these people have to endure each year! You’ve got the televised country ones: ACMs, CMTs, CMAs, now ACAs. You’ve got the all-genre music ones: Grammys, AMAs, People’s Choice, maybe VMAs. There are those lower-profile ones run by Billboard, NSAI, the performing rights organizations ASCAP, BMI and SESAC, and probably yet more I’m forgetting. And if you do anything on these occasions but smile, gush about fans and laugh politely at Brad Paisley, you risk a career smear.

I used to watch awards shows, but it gets so tiring seeing the same artists win every year. Why do we even need to watch? Taylor, Lady A, and Carrie will sweep because they’re incredibly popular acts at the moment.

it’s a new idea, but i couldn’t help but think “SERIOUSLY? yet ANOTHER country show? not needed at all.” it’s just FOX trying to get in on the great ratings that the ACMs and CMAs get for CBS & ABC. next year you’ll see the “young country star awards” on the CW. and it’ll never be a big deal since i can go make a bunch of accounts and vote a million times for my favorite artist. oh well, at least we’ll get performances. and while imperfect voting system, it’ll be interesting to see how these winners compare to the CMAs/ACMs. anyway, carrie underwood, taylor swift, and lady antebellum will sweep it all up.

When I first heard about this, I wanted to slap my computer screen. Why did we need another Country music awards show?

It made no sense to me, but after the nominees came out, I realized that it incorporates the fans, and Country music’s fanbase has increased drastically since the Carrie/Lady A/Taylor takeover. I’ll give it a shot.

The winners are pretty obvious, in my opinion…
Artist of the Year:
Lady Antebellum
Taylor Swift
Carrie Underwood
Don’t know which one, but it will be one of these 3. It could be Carrie if the public gives her enough sympathy votes from the CMA snub.

Touring Artist of the Year:
Taylor Swift
Carrie Underwood
Again, probably Carrie. She’s been on tour more than Taylor has in 2010.

Male Artist:
Keith Urban

Female Artist:
Taylor Swift
Carrie Underwood
Not sure about this one. Did I actually see Jewel’s name on an awards show ballot?

Duo/Group:
Lady Antebellum

New/Breakthrough Artist:
Easton Corbin

Album:
Lady Antebellum, Need You Now
Miranda Lambert, Revolution
Don’t know, to be quite honest. It’s a tossup between these 2.

Single of the Year:
Lady Antebellum, “Need You Now”

Single by a Male Artist:
Luke Bryan, “Do I”

Single by a Female Artist:
Carrie Underwood, “Cowboy Casanova”

Single by a Duo/Group:
Lady Antebellum, “Need You Now”

Single by a New/Breakthrough Artist:
Easton Corbin, “A Little More Country Than That”

Music Video of the Year:
Lady Antebellum, “Need You Now”

Music Video by a Male Artist:
Blake Shelton and Trace Adkins, “Hillbilly Bone”

Music Video by a Female Artist:
Carrie Underwood, “Cowboy Casanova”
First Jewel, now Gretchen… I’m surprised (yet relieved) at the very little amount of Taylor Swift on this list.

Music Video by a Duo/Group:
Lady Antebellum, “Need You Now”

Music Video by a New/Breakthrough Artist:
Laura Bell Bundy, “Giddy On Up”

At this rate, mainstream country will be spending more time handing out awards then time spent making music. All these awards could be more justified if the music being produced was high quality, intelligent lyrics, challenging the listening and moving a generation, but really they are only honouring radio ear candy filler and record company marketing schemes. Do we need to make these people feel better about themselves 12 times a year?

To argue that it will be interesting to see who wins during this particular time of the year, or because its entirely fan voted, who cares, these people have been honoured enough already. Now lets give more awards to people who deserve them, like The Nobel Peace Prize recipiants, or at the very least, country artists who make music of too high a quality for radio’s standards.

No doubt about it, DANNY GOKEY for new/breakthrough artist of the year, not because of Idol, because he is an awesome performer, I’ve seen him in concert twice, once he opened for Sugarland and the next he opened for Craig Morgan. Not only is he a great performer, he’s sweet, humble, hasn’t let his new fame “go to his head” and he does ALOT for his fans. Not to mention “Sophis’s Heart Foundation” he created to honor the memory of his late wife, Sophia. I was blessed to meet Danny @ both concerts and he is just so…real.